#1980: SwordlessLink's GB The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening in 03:49.28

Emulator: VisualBoyAdvance Emulator Version 1.7.2 re-recording 19.3

This improvement of 673 frames (11.22 seconds) was achieved mostly through a new route before the boss battle, but also through corner boosting, putting more thought into where Link should be before entering the next screen, and better manipulation and lag avoidance on the boss.

Route changes over the previous run

If you're familiar with the previous run, you'll notice that I take a different route after entering the dungeon. This new route consists of an extra downwards screenwarp, and as a result, means I only need to go over the boss room via screenwarping 2 times, as opposed to 3, like it was with the old route. This also changes the battle quite noticably: the first part of the boss is much quicker, and behaves differently than he would have had the old route been taken. The rest of the battle is the same as it previously was, although I did lose some frames due to unavoidable lag (I spent several days trying to get around this, and what you see is the best I could get) which is present, presumably, as a result of the new screenwarp route. Also, to get the correct manipulation on the first part of the boss, I had to delay the first screenwarp by 1 frame. If I didn't do this, the boss wouldn't behave the way he had to for the battle to be much faster, because he only behaves the "correct" way if the bat is off the screen before the second screenwarp (which he wouldn't have been had I done the screenwarp on the first possible frame). Taking the unavoidable lag into account, the new route saved 604 frames (10.06 seconds) over the old route.

Had the old route been used, along with the other optimisations in the run, the time saved would've been 69 frames (1.15 seconds).

Tricks and glitches

Screenwarp

This is done by pressing select just before the screen starts changing when moving to another screen. It causes Link to warp to the other side of the screen.

Up/down + A and B

This is done by pressing up and down at the same time, then pressing the A or B button. Pressing A causes Link to become graphically distorted, and can lead to some cool side effects. As you'll see in the boss battle, I turn into Dark Link. Pressing B makes the game think Link is at another part of the screen, which was used to get the sword without actually going down to it.

Corner boosting

This only works on corners which you're moving away from, i.e., it won't work on the corner while exiting the house at the start of the game. It will, however, work on the two corners outside the house, and the one before entering the dungeon. It's done by moving Link into the corner on a certain frame, and it causes him to be pushed forwards a bit. It saves 1 frame each time it's done.